College students aim to land jobs after graduation, and the fall Career Expo can give them a head start in the job-market race.The fall Career Expo gives students the chance to take a glimpse at different company positions, meet potential employers and practice interviewing and networking.The Career Expo will be held in the Maddox Field House today from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. More than 180 companies will attend the expo to recruit potential employees and meet with undergraduate and graduate students.”[The Career Expo] is our biggest recruiting event,” said Sara Crow, Career Services assistant director of communications. “Students have specific ideas about what they want to do career wise. We want students to understand that expo isn’t just about finding dream job, but it’s about networking. Everybody in college is focused on majors, but the job world isn’t revolved around majors. It’s revolved around skill sets and knowledge.”Jeff Crow, TEKsystems professional recruiter and Sara Crow’s husband, said the Career Expo in fall 2004 put him on track with his current profession.”I had a career path in mind, but it was going to take some time to get there, so I was looking for a job in the meantime,” Jeff Crow said. “I had never heard of [the recruiter position]. The expo was my first introduction to that job.”Jeff Crow said he received a callback from the company, went through the interview process and landed the job. He’s been a recruiter for six years.Sara Crow said the fall Career Expo is bigger than the spring Career Expo. She said 1,407 students attended the spring 2009 expo, and 1,727 students attended the fall 2008 expo.”There was a slight decline from our normal fall [student] participation, which we attributed to [Hurricane Gustav],” Sara Crow said.Sara Crow said she hopes today’s attendance will be between 1,700 and 2,000 students, but said this fall’s Career Expo has less company attendance than previous years because some companies’ recruiting budgets were cut.”The reduction in number of companies attending the Expo is entirely due to the state of the economy,” Sara Crow said. “Some companies are no longer able to pay for the travel and participation expenses for the expo.”She said she’s noticed more freshmen attending during the past few expos.”[Freshman attendance] is great because we stress to students the importance of networking early on,” she said.Jonathan Lilly, business and biological sciences freshman, said he will attend the expo to network and meet professionals.Sara Crow said the Student Services team at Career Services saw 179 walk-in students who wanted interviewing and resume tips during a one-week open-door program, while 129 students came to that program last fall, and 143 students came last spring.Stephanie Howington, accounting sophomore, said she went to a smaller Career Expo for business majors last year and found it helpful.”[The companies] understood we were freshman, so they just talked to us,” Howington said. “It was good networking, but the companies expect you to know more about them when you get there.”—-Contact Mary Walker Baus at [email protected]